Zero Hour
In the Temporal Cold War '' |image= |series= |production=40358-324 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Rick Berman and Brannon Braga |director= Allan Kroeker |imdbref=tt0572267 |guests=Scott MacDonald as Commander Dolim, Rick Worthy as Jannar, Tucker Smallwood as Xindi-Primate Councilor, Josette DiCarlo as Sphere-Builder Woman, Bruce Thomas as Xindi-Reptilian Soldier, Andrew Borba as Xindi-Reptilian Lieutenant, Matt Winston as Temporal Agent Daniels, Mary Mara as Sphere-Builder Presage, Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builder Primary, Jeffrey Combs as Commander Shran, Günther Ziegler as German Doctor, J. Paul Boehmer as SS Officer and Zachary Krebs as Andorian |previous_production=Countdown |next_production=Storm Front Part 1 |episode=ENT S03E24 |airdate=26 May 2004 |previous_release=Countdown |next_release=Storm Front Part 1 |story_date(s)= 14 February 2154/2161/1944 |previous_story=Countdown |next_story=Storm Front Part 1 }} Summary Sub-Commander T'Pol orders Enterprise to 'Sphere 41', in an attempt to destroy the entire sphere network. They arrive to find that the Sphere Builders have created a distortion field around it. Doctor Phlox determines that 12–15 minutes exposure will kill the crew. Undeterred, Commander Tucker modifies the deflector dish so that it can be used to destroy the sphere. As they approach, two Guardians arrive and begin damaging the ship's systems, but they cannot prevent the sphere’s destruction. It implodes, setting off a chain reaction that successfully destroys the rest of the spheres, ending all spatial anomalies in the region. Meanwhile, Captain Archer, accompanied by Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Sato, and a team of MACOs, enters the vortex created by the Xindi weapon. During the pursuit, a recovering Sato is pushed by Archer to decipher Degra's schematics. Again Archer is suddenly pulled into the future by Temporal Agent Daniels, this time to the founding of the United Federation of Planets, but Archer is again uninterested. Arriving near Earth, Archer receives an unexpected transmission from Commander Shran, who engages and then destroys the Reptilian ship. In the chaos, Archer and his team are able to beam aboard the weapon. A fierce fire-fight ensues, and as Archer and Sato try to disable the weapon, Commander Dolim attempts to stop them. He fails and the weapon is destroyed. Sato and Reed return to Enterprise with the sad news that Archer did not make it off the weapon. Ferried on an Aquatic ship, Enterprise then returns to Earth, but they are unable to contact Starfleet. Surprised, T'Pol orders Tucker and Ensign Mayweather to fly a shuttlepod down to San Francisco, where they are suddenly attacked by what seem to be P-51s. The final scene switches to a World War II German field-hospital. A doctor summons some SS officers to examine the unfamiliar uniform of a burn patient who was recently brought in. The patient is revealed as Archer. One of the SS personnel steps out of the shadows, revealing himself to be a gray-skinned alien. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # The Undesirable Element on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 7:26 pm: When the Guardians are forced out of Engineering, why do they go to some power station instead of heading for the bridge? Wouldn't that be a better place to do some damage? LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: Because they know that the crew now knows how to hurt them. ''SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC)''Attacking the power station would disrupt every system on the ship, including any back-ups. # Sparrow47 on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 8:16 pm: Was that a Reman we saw there at the end? I didn't think their skin was that blue. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: That may simply have been the lighting. ''SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC)''Maybe all the temporal anomolies have resulted in him having an Andorian ancestor! # Captain Dunsel on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 9:49 pm: Just an observation that would have been a nice continuity touch: instead of Yosemite 3 the orbiting station should have been Space Station Salem One. Picard refers to this station as the site of a Pearl Harbor-like sneak attack upon an Earth outpost. (I don't recall which TNG episode) The Xindi attack on Yosemite 3 seemed to fit those circumstances. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: The Enemy (TNG). I think from the way Picard described it, comparing it to Pearl Harbor, made it sound like a far greater and more dramatic event than one in which 30 or 40 people on an unarmed research station were blown up. ''SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC)''A common fan theory states that it was the Salem One attack which triggered the Earth/Romulan war, that led to the founding of the United Federation of Planets. # Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 12:31 am: NNAN. Seemed like an odd time for Phlox to be making out his will. Surely he could have made the comment about his wife's other husband keeping his drum set at a previous time, like say, the start of the mission. I realize that people do put off making wills until it's almost too late in real life, but Phlox did make that comment about Denobulans enjoying giving away stuff to various relatives. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: It’s possible that he did, but is simply rewriting it, much as O’Brien said he did several times in a DS9 episode, and that they do this to pass the time during moments of great tension and stress. Sickbay is empty, so what else is he to do on the eve of battle? # Shouldn't Phlox have told the crew earlier about the skin effects? Yes, I know he mentioned it to T'Pol, but Trip's reaction indicates that he didn't realize it could happen & if other crewmembers had this reaction or worse it could affect their ability to do their jobs. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: In which case it’s T’Pol who neglected to inform them, since he went straight to the top, thinking the info would get announced by her. SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC) Maybe she believes that ignorance of the dangers would be a better option in this case. # I'm surprised the MACO didn't have a backup weapon that he could use in a hand to hand fight with any reptilians. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: Who says he didn’t? He didn’t have time to go for it. # Good thing destroying the spheres resulted in a nearly instant change of space over hundreds of light years. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: Where was this seen? The only area where space returned to normal immediately was that around Sphere 41. # I wonder if those religious fanatics who worship the spheres will now declare holy war on Earth for destroying the spheres? inblackestnight on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 5:37 pm: Good point, I never thought of that. However, they're probably too busy rebuilding their planet to do that, although that hasn't stopped humans from holy wars. # Christopher Q on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 4:52 am: I'm not certain the crew went back in time. It seemed to me that time was changed in the past, and they are in their present seeing the result.. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: No, but Archer certainly appeared to. It certainly appeared he was in a triage tent during a war, presumably WWII. inblackestnight on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 2:00 pm: Although it is long after the series finale I would think the appearance of P-51 Mustangs are a good indicator of them being in the past. # Influx on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 8:15 am: I'm glad the MACO gave more of a fight instead of just surrendering. I would have liked to see him pull the knife from himself and jab it into the Xindi just before plunging over the side though. You don't "instantly" die from a knife wound. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: I thought the same thing! SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC) The MACO’s probably have standing order to leave the blade in plaace when stabbed, in order to minimise blood loss. # Christopher Q on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 9:35 am: Another point… Just how poor are Enterprise sensors? Were they broke? Why couldn't they know the condition of Earth without sending a pod? Enterprise has suffered a lot of damage – the required systems could be offline and requiring repair/replacement. # And Travis said something about seeing a command center. It sounded like a building that both he & Trip recognized. Does Travis know any more details? Did the center look like what he expected? When they get closer will they find an ape wearing a hat? LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: No, Trip simply just told Travis to set her down on the pad behind it. # ScottN on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 10:30 am: hy wouldn't they be scanning on all frequencies (including radio)? That's what Uhura did in Tomorrow Is Yesterday (TOS), IIRC. Of course, then they would have known immediately that something was wrong. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: Perhaps there’s a standard frequency that Hosih was using. If she uses all of them upfront, wouldn’t that require Starfleet to listen individually to each one? # In addition, Trip tells Travis to land somewhere (I think on the pad behind the Command center). Shouldn't Travis have said, "I don't see the Command Center"? LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: They didn’t get there yet because the planes began attacking them. # Len on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 11:41 am: With respect to the Sphere plotline, we got the race against time to destroy the key Sphere with the Sphere-builders making it interesting to the end. I liked the way Phlox used the info he got from the earlier ep to defeat the Sphere-builders now - it's been typical of the season where the writers really are pulling together all the threads that have been laid out in various episodes. Some people have raised the totally valid point of it being slightly ridiculous that the Xindi wouldn't send some additional ships to help Enterprise at the Sphere. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: Their ships weren’t fast enough to catch up in time. Len on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 2:00 pm: Did they establish that ALL of the Xindi ships were slower than Enterprise? I don't recall that they did. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:38 am: The Enterprise is battered, and Trip told Archer he could give him Warp 3.4 “with a little coaxing” in Act 5 of Countdown. No mention was made that this status has improved. # Where were the other satellites/defenses to earth? Where was the rest of the fleet? This one is answered VERY easily: they're not there because even BEFORE the Weapon is destroyed, we're next to this WWII era Earth which HAD no orbiting satellites and fleet! We don't know what's caused the WWII era Earth to appear - but why assume it happened AFTER the Weapon was destroyed? Perhaps the shift (if a shift occurred) happened after the Xindi destroyed the one station? Or perhaps the sphere of influence of this anomalous earth didn't extend as far as that space station. Either explanation neatly answers all these questions. KAM on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 2:08 am: Sorry, but later Hoshi is unable to contact the Lunar 1 colony and there are no other space stations in orbit. I find it unlikely that this one station was orbiting outside the orbit of the moon. Len on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 9:47 am: Perhaps it was like a time wave. By the time Hoshi tried to contact the Lunar 1 colony, the wave had expanded.inblackestnight on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 2:00 pm: Apologies if this was already stated and I missed it but your events are incorrect. When Dollum and the weapon appeared near Earth it was in the present because he destroys Yosemite station. # The Undesirable Element on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 3:05 pm: I don't care what anyone says. That was a Reman, plain and simple. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: We don’t know it was a Reman. It might’ve been (the mouth and nose looked right), but it didn’t have the ears, and the Remans didn’t have red eyes. Many Trek races look superficially alike, after all. The robbers who victimized Trip and Reed in Two Days and Two Nights also looked like Remans, and even had the ears, but no one took them as Remans. Hagath’s ladyfriend from Business As Usual (DS9) looked just like a healthy Vidiian, but no one accused the creators of putting a member of a Delta Quadrant race on the station. The Soporans seen in Prodigal Daughter (DS9), looked exactly like the Vhnori from Emanations (VOY), right down to the protruding brow, the four-lobed cranium, and even the membranes extending from the outer edge of each nostril, but no one assumed that guy was a Vhnori. Torque, Son of Keplar on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 3:18 pm: It is a Reman, I double checked the back cover of my Nemesis DVD with the paused image of the Nazi alien. One does wonder how an alien could become a member of the Nazi party to begin with? The Nazis to my recollection didn't seem like the group of people to welcome outsiders and or persons with differences… The Undesirable Element on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 5:41 pm: I have heard the theory that the Reman is using mind control to make the Nazis think that he/she is actually human. Nazis were probably chosen because: 1. Their symbol is immediately recognizable. 2. They're one of the most famous evil groups in history. 3. WWII affected most of the planet. 4. A lot of people are already very familiar with them. 5. Trek has some sort of fascination with analyzing the Nazi Party. I'm not too worked up about it. The worst that could happen is that it all turns out to be really lame. It wouldn't be any worse than Sela showing up in Redemption (TNG). It would just make for a crappy resolution not the end of the series. I suspect, however, that TPTB have something up their sleeves. This is quite a hole they dug themselves into, and it would be very very unwise for them to create this cliffhanger without having some idea of where they're going with it. The Undesirable Element on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 11:48 am: I have to say I'm starting to wonder if the alien is in fact a Reman. Take a look at this link: http://www.triphammered.com/ Scroll down to the third picture. It looks a hell of a lot like a Reman, but it's not really quite right. I wouldn't be surprised if it did turn out to be a Reman with slightly altered makeup, but I also wouldn't be surprised now if it turned out to be another alien entirely. Will Reuther on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 7:06 pm: I was just watching Nemesis on The Movie Channel and was giving the Remans a good looking over. There seem to be quite a number of differences between their face and that of the "Nazi Alien": the skeletal ridges around the eyes seem more pronounced in the Remans; the Reman nose seems more blunt and less well-defined; and the Remans' lower canine tusks seemed to be placed differently than those of the "Nazi Alien." These are just too many points of dissimilarity for me to be comfortable accepting that "NA" is a Reman. Of course, consider the difference between the Klingons of TOS and those of all later productions. I always figured that was due to poor shielding of the warp core in earlier Klingon ships; but Worf insisted, simply, "We don't like to talk about it!" Anonymous on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 10:46 pm: Maybe it's a half-reman/half-nazi. # Torque, Son of Keplar on Thursday, May 27, 2004 - 6:47 pm: Why can't Daniels just tell Archer everything and then erase those memories? Then they could get around the "I'll get in trouble and so on" speeches. Daniels may not be able to erase Archer’s memories without causing physical damage, or leaving telltale gaps. # For crying out loud… CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES DANIELS!!!! Len on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:27 am: What if all the Daniels' scenes over the last 3 years are within the same day for Daniels. i.e. from his perspective, he's dropped in on Archer several times within a 2 hour period, from Archer's point of view its been 3 years. That explains Daniels' sartorial sameness. Polls Voice on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 11:17 am: Oh, it was nothing... Just all in a days work. # KAM on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 2:08 am: Was there any reference to trying to contact the Martian colonies? Sparrow47 on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 2:35 pm: No, there wasn't. # Len on Friday, May 28, 2004 - 10:27 am: Archer and Daniels are standing in what appears to be a ceremonial declaration for the Federation or something of that nature... One wonders how tight security is that 1.7 humans could appear there. I don't know about anyone else but I would think that might trigger a few alarms. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:27 am: I would think that Daniels is equipped to avoid detection. I would also think that individual genetics can only be scanned using sickbay equipment, and not small or portable devices, given that such genetic scans, such as in Stigma, Future Tense, and E2 are always conducted in sickbays using large equipment. # ScottN on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 9:32 am: According to Azati Prime, if Archer succeeds in his mission, then the SphereBuilders will be defeated at the Battle of Procyon V, with the Expanse having a volume 50000 lightyears in diameter. Yet here, the spheres maintaining the anomalies in the Expanse are destroyed. (Which explains why we've never seen the Expanse in (Trek chronology) later series. Len on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 2:13 pm: Very simple explanation - doesn't require a single chronoton particle: The Spherebuilders build a DIFFERENT expanse some time in the future - presumably w/o the silly domino effect vulnerability which allowed our heros to prevail during Zero Hour. The reason we'd never seen this before is ALSO easily explained by 1 of 2 explanations: 1) The battle takes place AFTER Nemesis (in fact, I think that's said in Azati Prime, isn't it?) 2) The timeline has been altered by the whole TCW. # LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 7:49 am: Dolum says in the teaser that if the Guardians made them the dominant species before the Xindi Civil War, that Xindus would not have been destroyed, and his lieutenant, referencing the extinct Avians, adds that their “alien brothers would still fill the skies.” ScottN on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:29 am: I thought he said "avian brothers" ''' # After Archer goes to see Hoshi in her quarters on Degra’s ship, and she retreats to her bed, Archer tells her that Degra encrypted his schematics for the Weapon, and that she’s been trying to decipher them. Um, no, she deciphered a third arming code. Not the schematics. And for all we know, the third arming code she deciphered wasn’t even Degra’s, but could’ve been the Arboreals’, or the Aquatics’. ''Nove Rockhoomer on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 8:55 pm:'' An earlier scene established that Archer wanted Hoshi to decipher the schematics. LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 10:51 pm: My point is that I thought his comment about what she’s “been” doing was a reference to what Dolum had her do.SeniramUK 10:49, November 27, 2018 (UTC)''This scene is set AFTER her rescue from the Reptillians, so it would make sense for her to be dechipering the schematics for the weapon., if only so Archer and the others know where to place the demolition charges.' # And does someone wanna explain to me the point of the destruction of Yosemite Three in Act 2? How was this relevant to the plot? At first I thought it was some kind of Trojan horse or something, but noting came of it. The only thing I can think of was Dolum’s statement that battling the Kumari was taking them away from the Weapon, and the Xindi-Humanoid did mention when Dolum went after the station that it was changing course, but I doubt this made that much a difference, or that Starfleet would plant it there but not defend Earth with ships.Josh M on Sunday, November 07, 2004 - 3:18 pm: They just wanted to show us even more proof that Dolum's a d**k. inblackestnight on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 2:00 pm: Dollum quoted from the Guardians that once Earth is destroyed to do the same to all human colonies et al; then stated he saw no reason not to begin with the station. Other than that, Dollum was probably just showing how tough he is blowing up an unmanned space station. ''Chris Booton (Cbooton) on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 11:30 pm:''It wasn't unmanned. I'm pretty sure Archer mentions several scientists being on board. ''inblackestnight on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 3:56 am:''Oh yeah, duh, it was unarmed not unmanned. # In the second scene of Act 3, Dolum’s lieutenant says that in addition to the Xindi-Primates and Arboreals on Degra’s ship, there are seven humans. In addition to Archer, Reed and Hoshi, Reed picked three MACOs for the mission in Countdown. That’s six. Where did this seventh person come from? Darth Sarcasm on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 12:02 pm: Actually, in Countdown, Reed only asks for three volunteers (and all the MACOs step forward). But when they board Degra's ship at the end, there are four MACOs (two carrying Hoshi's stretcher and two with Reed). # During the Sphere-Builder attack on the Enteprise in Act 3, Corporal Kelly tells the bridge their weapons fire is just passing through the Sphere-Builders, and Trip says if the don’t get full power, the deflector pulse will take three or four minutes longer than they thought. Phlox says they don’t have three or four minutes, and tells Corporal Kelly to modify their weapons to a rotating frequency of 32.6 tera-cycles, telling T’Pol that he derived this solution by studying the Sphere-Builder in Harbinger, and get this—hopes that his memory serves him well. What? Phlox had vital data on how to repel the Sphere-Builders since that episode, and never told Reed and the MACOs until now? And even now, is only relying on memory? Up until now, Phlox has been immune to the normal operational stupidity that is often contrived on the part of the other characters. I guess there’s a first time for everything. Phlox didn’t want to overload them with information they may not actually need to know. # And isn’t it convenient for this scene that Phlox is on the bridge, so he can tell this to Kelly, when he should be in the sickbay dealing with casualties that come in during this mission? Who’s taking care of that engineer whom the Sphere-Builders knocked off the catwalk in the closing shot of Act 2? Josh M on Sunday, November 07, 2004 - 3:18 pm: Maybe those medical guys you always mention from Minefield. # LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:38 am: We all assumed and hoped (I know I did) that the Enterprise would return the Illyrians’ warp coil when this was over. Did they give it to the Xindi-Humanoid along with the Illyrians’ last coordinates before the Aquatics brought them back to Earth? The fact that they had to go to Earth in the Aquatics’ ship, rather than simply go through the vortex themselves (since they have at least Warp 3.4) may suggest that they did. But if we suddenly see the Enterprise at Warp in the Season 4 premiere, we’ll have ourselves another nit! :) SPOILER ALERT!! The ship doesn’t need warp drive during the events of Storm Front Parts 1 and 2, and probably gets a new warp coil/core while being repaired (rebuilt) during Home. # Duane Parsons on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 8:21 am: Bit late, but: Overall a very good way to end the season, except Nazis (again). With an alien, yet to be determined, helping out the Germans. Based on the airplanes intercepting the shuttle pod, the year is 1944 (or 1945). The planes are P-51D Mustangs that first came out in the summer of 1944. If the year is before 1944, then a nit. If it is 1944 and the war has taken its historical course in our time/universe, then the Germans are losing the war. Len on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 8:57 am: You're assuming we're in our universe. This could be an alternate timeline where the planes were developed quicker. Even if it's our timeline, the planes could have been developed quicker if the Nazis had alien help. Sparrow47 on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 11:35 am: Well, if the aliens were helping the Nazis, that wouldn't affect the United States' airforce, so the timeframe quoted should hopefully pan out to be correct. Len on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 11:50 am: Good point. But, still, not necessarily - b/c with alien help, the Nazi's mnight have shown technological advances that spurred the Americans to step up their own work. Remember, necessity is the mother of invention! # Merat on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 8:25 pm: I have a question about the scene of the shuttle pod flying over the bridge. Is there really that much green space around the Golden Bay Bridge? ''Duke of Earl Grey on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 1:47 pm:''Well, Merat, I've only visited San Francisco once, but as I recall, there are sizeable chunks of park land set aside south of the Golden Gate, and the city doesn't extend north of the bridge, so there's a good deal of greenery on that side as well. # Nove Rockhoomer on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 8:55 pm: Here's a possible nit: on the pod, when Travis and Trip hear the shooting, they look to the left (port?) side of the pod, even though the planes are coming at them from the front. Was there some reason for this that I missed? LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 10:51 pm: Perhaps the bullets simply hit the side of the pod. Perhaps there were several planes, and the bullets that hit the pod were fired by the allies of the ones we saw in the pod’s windshield. Or maybe the planes were swerving around all over the place. Category:Episodes Category:Enterprise